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History · Nassawadox

Nassawadox’s post office opened in 1886, and 19% of its homes were built before 1940

1 place in town is on the National Register, among them a historic district with 7 buildings. Below: 6 old photos and papers from 1930 on.

1886first post office
1on the National Register
19%homes built before 1940
6old photos & papers
7famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Nassawadox’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Nassawadox began

When was Nassawadox founded?

1886

The Nassawadox post office opened in 1886, the earliest record of the town by name.

2020 census: 533140 years
Founding year: the first Nassawadox post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
The story

How Nassawadox came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Nassawadox.

Read it all →

The name derives from a word from a Native American language that means "land between two waters." Nassawadox is bounded on the east by the Atlantic Ocean and on the west by the Chesapeake Bay. The county is divided, as is the town, into bayside and seaside areas, which refer to the land on either side of the highway, Route 13 (Lankford Highway), which runs through Accomack and Northampton counties.

Highlighting its name and its location, Nassawadox has since 1993 hosted the annual October Between the Waters Bike Tour, which features bike tours of various lengths between the Eastern Shore's two coasts.

Brownsville and the Northampton Lumber Company Historic District are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Nassawadox, 1886 to 1990

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1886Post officeThe Nassawadox post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1930In the archiveBrownsville
  5. 1939Born hereD. Page Elmore is born here
  6. 1959Born hereRalph Northam is born here
  7. 1961Born hereLynwood Lewis is born here
  8. 1990Born hereTyler Webb is born here
By decade

Nassawadox, decade by decade

One decade in the archive so far: the 1930s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1930s6 items
Brownsville1930BrownsvilleBrownsville1930BrownsvilleBrownsville1930BrownsvilleBrownsville1930BrownsvilleBrownsville1930BrownsvilleBrownsville1930Brownsville
1940s–1990snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your album
Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Brownsville
Retake this viewBrownsville, 1930

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Nassawadox’s page.

Retake this view · +15
On the National Register

1 listing protects 7 historic buildings

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
7
each building in a district counts
first listed
2008
Northampton Lumber Company Historic District
Northampton Lumber Company Historic District
Districts
Northampton Lumber Company Historic DistrictDistrict

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

Famous people

7 famous people were born in Nassawadox

Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.

See all →
Ralph NorthamGovernor of Virginia from 2018 to 2022 · b. 1959
Tyler WebbAmerican baseball player · b. 1990
D. Page ElmoreAmerican politician · b. 1939
L
Lynwood LewisAmerican politician in Virginia · b. 1961
T
Todd WashingtonAmerican football offensive lineman · b. 1976
F
Frank RobinsonCanadian football player · b. 1959
Help out

Finish Nassawadox’s story

Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewBrownsville: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10

Questions about Nassawadox’s history

What year was Nassawadox founded?

The Nassawadox post office opened in 1886, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in Nassawadox?

One place: the Northampton Lumber Company Historic District (listed 2008).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From the Library of Congress (6), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.